Bee swarm in Ullapool? Help is a minute away.

Ullapool is the principal town of Wester Ross and the largest settlement in the north-west Highlands outside Inverness, a planned fishing village founded in 1788 by the British Fisheries Society on the eastern shore of Loch Broom. The ferry connection to Stornoway and the sheltered sea-loch setting make Ullapool the service hub for a vast hinterland of sea-lochs, glens and moorland. Gorse is prolific on the slopes above the town from April; sycamore and rowan in the village streets and gardens provide a May flow; the Loch Broom lochside carries hawthorn and elder in the sheltered bays south of the village. The surrounding Assynt and Beinn Dearg moorlands carry ling heather from late July through September, one of the most isolated heather grounds in Britain. The Highland Beekeepers Association covers this area, with collectors aware of the long distances involved in northwest Highland callouts.

The season arrives late — gorse and broom on the Moray coast and sycamore in sheltered valleys begin May. Raspberry (cultivated and wild) on Easter Ross gives a substantial early flow. The Highland defining crop is ling heather on the huge moors of the central, eastern and western Highlands — the finest UK heather honey with a distinct red-amber set and jelly texture, still commercially worked. Bell heather, bilberry and upland herbs supplement. Coastal sea-thrift and ivy on lochside cottages close a short, high-quality year.